Do you like problem solving? here is one for ya !

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Hello, I am new here. Through some research, I have decided to go with a crown xti2000 amp, over a peavey 2600 because the crown will be the exact wattage/ speaker match, and it seems the crown to be the better amp from what I have been reading on the internet. I am applying this amp to a set up AT HOME ONLY, which can also be run through my m-audio profire 2626, which I am using for studio at home. I have a drumset, and this is all for the purpose of live play at home for myself. I am trying to accomplish "Live sound" feedback while playing my drums ( meaning amped up, with lots of boom and tone! ). However, I also would like to

1.)playback my pre-recorded music (without the drum track) through my speakers, so I may play my drums to it live.

2.)record myself playing the drums at anytime through my interface while having the drums miced up.( I don't know if this can be done while playing back my pre-recorded music, by the way.)

Ok, here is my planned set up............one 115 on top of one 118 on each side of the drumset. (I have no choice because of room limitations)

here is my planned order of players..............I plan on going from my mixer to my interface, to my eq, to crown, to the speakers. I don't know if I will plug the drum machine into the mixer, or straight into the interface.

So, here are my questions.........................1.)Do I need an external crossover, or is the crossover in the xti good enough FOR MY APPLICATION ?

2.)Would you say the xti2000, being the correct amp mathwise ,is perfect, or do you suggest a different amp FOR MY

APPLICATION? (I must keep the speakers, I know...they aren't the best in the world...)

3.) does my plan of order of running the units sound correct ?

4.) It is my understanding, that it takes more power to push the 18's even though they have the same wattage as the 15's. By running two pv115's and two pv118's on the same amp, will I be cheating myself out of "bass power" because of using the same amp, or will it be ok, because the crossover on the amp (or separate crossover) will separate all of the power anyways, giving me the bottom end I am expecting out of the 18's?

5.) If an external crossover is recommended, can you please tell me the least expensive one to do the job, and why?

6.) If there is a better suggested hookup of all of this, please let me know

7.) please advise me on settings on the crown amp for my specific set up.

Thank you very much for your assistance. I have the crown on lay-away, but have everything else I think I need, and am very excited to hook all of this up as soon as possible, so I really need your advise to do it correctly. Thank you !!!!

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Kevin, thank you for the answers. It definitely is good to know I don't have to go out and find a crossover! I found out yesterday that the xti2k hooks up to a computer for programing, crazeeeee! So apparently this is what you mean by having "more program options" than the xls2500.

1)so would I be accurate by assuming you are saying the xti has more crossover capability options?

2)so for my situation of doing this for my drum set up at home, is there different programming I am going to want to use, do you think?

3) I do like the quieter fan" option, however, especially since.I want the option to record my drums. So I guess my next question would be......does the "quieter fan option" outweigh the.ability to do more programming option, which I am only using this amp for my drums, and.is the.quiet fan a.serious noticeable.difference, that I should take.the.xti off of layaway, and find a 2500?. Which.would you go for, if you were me?

4)Since I have.your attention, one more question that nobody would answer at another website..........is peavey speaker cable better or the.same as monster cable?.thank you very much, again.

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Well, I thought it would be nice (just as it was to receive advise) to give back an update on my crown amp, and drum set situation........

Ok, so I ended up continuing my purchase of the xti2000 amp instead of the xls1500 because I got an even better deal, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have more features , whether I used them or not. So I received my crown this morning, and just finished playing around with the settings and external eq. So since I am a drummer and had questions just for a drummers set up, let me continue down that path......

So I didn't have the patience or know how to do the crossover set up from the dedicated software website, so with a little assistance from Mr.heber,I was able to learn the simple setup from the front face, which Is also on the Owners manual download, from the Internet.

So for my double bass drumset, I decidedd to go with the "y" setup, using channels one and two, separately. This option gives you +6db more. I also set the crossover to 90hz. I also used the subsynth option.

All of these simple settings, and also a separate 31 double band eq, Aliong with my mixer, are making my drumset amped up sound just the way I wanted it to.

Being it that my finances are not the best, I was hoping to get at least this much thunder out of my pa system. Let me tell you, I have a huge drumset, 26x24" bass drums, a 17 piece kit with 17 cymbals I'm using two mics on each bass, an overhead condenser Mic, and a condenser in my "gong" bass drum. Using monster cable, I can say that with my speakers, (which aren't the best) the CROWN XTI2000 AMP is definately doing what I thought it would. I haven't really banged on the drums for the day yet, so I haven't heard the fan come on yet. I did put my hand on top, and it w was only warm. So I carn tell you so far, that I am definately happy with my purchase of the poor man's amp.

Remember, this is only coming from a drummer that has a set up for home enjoyment only. But I am new at all of this audio stuff, so I am happy so far. So I can say this from my experience so far, don't go any less than the ohms or wattage that I am using so far. I would call my set up "good enough." I'm not trying to go deaf! But I Am getting a nice full sound.

if there are any sugggestions on my settings that would be better as far as getting more out of my amp, please let me know.

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After Thinking of my evening last night of playing around with my new crown amp, I realized a couple.of things I could use some info on........

1)I mioticed that when I hit my bass drums, the 15's, which are on channel two, and.are being used for Mids and highs, would "hit" like the 18" subs. So would it be better for me to use the "y stereo" function, and crossover at 90hz? Is my 31 band eq setting wrong?

As I said before, everything is sounding nice, but I don't think the 15" s are suppose to be are suppose to ne bumping with the 18"s?

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Ok, so I actually have thee answers to my previous questions. For what should end up being a better sound, I need to.........

1) bi-amp my system.

2) go to the software, turrn off the sub synth on channel 2

3) I will be using only one of the external eq's if this works out correct.

I'll keep you updated on how this works out. As of now, I changed the set up to "y" channel one and two, sub synth and two sub crossover. I am getting awesome bass with the external eq on 90 Hz and down. But I want to try to get more highs, really for my toms.

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So, I finally heard the fan come on and had to laugh. Are you serious? This is loud? Before I looked into my crown amp, I Had a

Peavey1500 (which I still don't understand why I was recommended this amp by them when it clearly was not enough wattage, and that thing had a fan on it that reminded me of one of the old school microwave ovens! When the amp on the crown came on, I had to think.of what it might have been making that little buzz around my drums, and then I remembered the fan. Loud? Yea, ok. This crown.xti.amp is beautiful, and it is perfect for my two peavey 15's and 18's. I am really happy I went this direction for my setup, I needed 800 watts a channel at 4 ohms, which the xti2000 is exactly) .

Well, if my last few replies can be answered, that will be great. I don't think it even.necessay.to go into the software options. This amp is a perfect setup for the drums In My situation. So I hoped that this might help other drummers who are trying to figure out which way to

Go with their drum set up, don't forget to use good cables and a eq. You only need a single eq, not a double, like It was suggested to me . The second eq is just sitting.thee bypassed, what a waste.

I am now a fan of crown. Oh, and one more question,.is it ok for fog from a machine to blow into the amp? I am also putting a small fan in front of the aamo to help with the heat, and sometimes I like to turn on the fog machine..... Thanks.

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On the y 1 and 2 channel setup, 90 Hz on crossover, sub synth,................. While the amp is bi-amped using just one eq?

Of course to "biamp" you'd need two amps. So if I understand this correctly, you can do this, but you'd need to use Band Manager or System Architect to set the highpass 90Hz crossover of the amp for your highs/mains. The highpass is what takes the really low bass thud out of the 15" mains.

Fog machine is no problem. Make sure the fan is blowing into the front, not away from it.

Did you have any unanswered questions left at this point? Sorry for the delayed reply. Thanks for the kind words

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Ok, just to make sure.......... I am using only one eq out, into channel 1 input on the amp. Then, i am running a xlr from channels 1 out (link), into channels #2 input.

On the amp mode, i have "y" channels set to 1and2 (i like the extra 6db). I also have the crossover set to 90hrz, and i am using subsynth.

Now, i know i cant separate the subsynth on channels 2 and leave it on 1 only (where the subs aré), unless i go into the system.arch. howeever, if i am correct, since i have done the bi- amp, the subsynth on channel two which is for highs, really is giving my highs a 6db boost, and nothing 90hz downward which is sparing me the sub from my 15" used for Mids and highs, which was not the situation with the different setup, when i was trying to go stereo,with subsynth.

So i just wanted to make sure this setup is ok, or if there is a better way. This setup does sound good though.

So that, and i was wondering if the internal crossover wastes a lot of amp power? I also have a low pass crossover on the peavey118's so am i choking my bass with all of The crossover stuff going on? Would it be better to have an external crossover? Thanks.

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Well I would say that does it. All of my questions and curiosities have been answered! Individual gains with architect? I have both knobs turned up all the way, so I won't ask what setting individual gains means. I added two beta 52's to my bass drums, with pg52's on the resonant side. So with two condensor overheads, two sm57's on toms/snare and in gong bass drum, four bass drum mics, a 1202pro mixer, and 31 band eq.......add a crown xti2000 to that set up with two 15's and 18's at 800 watts per chamnel @ 4 ohms, and you have a drumset that sounds beautiful. Funny enough, everything I brought was the least expensive quality items I could plan. This is for a 17 piece kit with 17 cymbaled two story rack, and I.couldn't be happier with the sound quality. I put my hand on Top of the amp and it was just warm, and the fan comes on much later than I would imagine necassary, especially compared to my previous waste of time amp.

So I hope that this information helps another drummer out there, even though I had to learn along the way, I had done a Lot of research on the internet, and couldn't find any help with what an "affordable" drumset Mic-up system might be suggested. This is an incredible set up, any louder, and I would go deaf. THIS AMP IS OUTSTANDING. The front features are great, I had a lot of options to go with. I can't imagine what going into the system architect could do, and.since my computer is messed up, I won't be finding out anytime soon,Haha!

Kevin, thank you so much for helping me through the amp setups and questions. Your timely assistance along with the amp equal two thumbs up for crown. Thank you very much.

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Well I would say that does it. All of my questions and curiosities have been answered! Individual gains with architect? I have both knobs turned up all the way, so I won't ask what setting individual gains means. I added two beta 52's to my bass drums, with pg52's on the resonant side. So with two condensor overheads, two sm57's on toms/snare and in gong bass drum, four bass drum mics, a 1202pro mixer, and 31 band eq.......add a crown xti2000 to that set up with two 15's and 18's at 800 watts per chamnel @ 4 ohms, and you have a drumset that sounds beautiful. Funny enough, everything I brought was the least expensive quality items I could plan. This is for a 17 piece kit with 17 cymbaled two story rack, and I.couldn't be happier with the sound quality. I put my hand on Top of the amp and it was just warm, and the fan comes on much later than I would imagine necassary, especially compared to my previous waste of time amp.

So I hope that this information helps another drummer out there, even though I had to learn along the way, I had done a Lot of research on the internet, and couldn't find any help with what an "affordable" drumset Mic-up system might be suggested. This is an incredible set up, any louder, and I would go deaf. THIS AMP IS OUTSTANDING. The front features are great, I had a lot of options to go with. I can't imagine what going into the system architect could do, and.since my computer is messed up, I won't be finding out anytime soon,Haha!

Kevin, thank you so much for helping me through the amp setups and questions. Your timely assistance along with the amp equal two thumbs up for crown. Thank you very much.

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Haha, no ear plugs when mixed up! As a matter of fact, the micing up of the drums actually means I don't have to hit them as hard to hear the tones I want. The cymbals don't over take the set , and I now actually am hitting them lighter than the before, because I can appreciate the tone of them in the mix more. A lot of times drummers hit harder because they are drowned out by guitar amps. This takes more energy on the drums, and technique gets sloppy. I was also guilty of this.

So when I turn on the amp, it is to really enjoy the different sounds on The drumset, or practice with a band. Other than that , no amp, and YES, EARPLUGS!